The Right Message

When I was in college many years ago, we were required to take a speech class. For me, most classes that were not science did not get me overly excited, and speech class was certainly one of them. However, throughout the semester we had to give various types of speeches. With each one, I seemed to enjoy them or at least not fear them. I was even that student who would volunteer to go first, because I learned that if you went first, you and the audience had nothing to compare it to, so there was very little pressure. Upon graduation, I landed my first “real job” as an operational meteorologist at a private forecasting firm, known as Surface Systems, Inc. My job was to create various forecasts during the shift and talk to customers over the phone. The job was very interesting and different each day, but it did not involve speaking to an audience except to a single person on the phone or maybe a small group in a conference call. One day, my boss asked me to come with him to Iowa to help him with a weather presentation. I was selected because the Iowa Department of Transportation was my customer and my boss thought I could talk a good game on the phone. We created a rather unimpressive PowerPoint presentation, something we had both never used before. (PowerPoint was still fairly new at the time!) Next thing I knew, we were in front of 300 Iowa DOT maintenance supervisors.

What I quickly learned from that first encounter was that I did not get nervous. In fact, I really enjoyed speaking about something I felt passionate about (weather) to a group such as this. My boss and I soon were off on a mini circuit, traveling the Midwest and performing that presentation over and over. What I loved about it, besides just the rush of speaking, was that you got instant feedback on your talking points and concepts. If the room smiled and nodded your message was going well, if they start to fall asleep or look bored you quickly adjusted to add in some cool weather story to regain their attention. Sometimes what worked one day, would flop the next. But, I learned an important messaging strategy: make sure you are getting feedback from the audience. It is okay for coworkers or your boss to hear the message, but real feedback comes from the audience you are targeting. Their reaction, body language in a live setting or digital statistics in a online setting, and their feedback to sales are what you should be listening to.

I did this for a number of years, until one day the company asked me to take on a new role as customer trainer, traveling the country teaching customers how to use our products and services. I don’t remember why, but right as I was taking on this new role the company invited a veteran presenter in the industry to come and speak to a few of us in the company. Right in the middle of his talk he stopped, and knowing the role I had just been given said rather rudely “Jon, what are you going to do when a customer challenges you and asks why are you in front of us telling us how to do our jobs.” Me and others in the room were a bit put off by his comment and tone, but it still made me think. “What does give me the right to be standing in front of them?” It would take me a few months to truly be able to answer it, and the answer was that I was not an expert at what they did, and nor should I ever try to be. However, I was an expert at Meteorology and I was able to share how weather impacted them. Thus, I learned another messaging strategy: your audience must know why they should listen to you. What makes the message you bring important for them? This can be communicated directly, visually through the brand, word of mouth, etc. There is a subtle difference between “being in their shoes” to learn about what values they hold, but when delivering your message, get out of their shoes! Own what you know and how it relates to the audience.

In my career I have lost track of how many people or even groups I have presented in front of, but the number is close to 20,000 or higher. And I have done presentations in almost all of the 50 states, most of the Canadian provinces, and few international locals as well. What this passion for speaking did for me is it drew me towards a career in marketing. Because after all, marketing is nothing more than various ways of communicating to various audiences so that they are inspired to act upon your message.

One thing that surprised me a little at first was when speaking at conferences some of the same people would come back to my sessions over and over. I would walk over to some of them before the start and whisper, “You know this session is pretty much the same as the one you heard last year.” Their response was always, “Yeah I know, Jon, each time I hear you I learn something new.” Which in turn gave me another messaging tip, if your message is interesting, keep repeating it, your audience does want to hear it again. Once is never enough!

Another observation that did not surprise me was most people do not want to be impressed by your level of intelligence. They would much rather listen to something they can understand or that you can help them understand. You do not need to impress your audience with big words and lofty concepts, especially if they don’t expect you to. When I speak about weather, the most common complement I get is, “Jon, you could have talked right over our heads, but you didn’t.” Making sure your message stays as simple as possible will help a vast majority of your audience understand what you are explaining. You can always provide the more detailed stuff on the side for the advanced audience member, but because even a narrow audience is coming from a fairly board background, you are more likely to catch a majority of your audience if you shoot for simple.

Public speaking is likely one of the very first forms of marketing ever used, as people would stand on street corners or in amphitheaters taking the message to the masses. And because it is so instant, it is a perfect way develop your message and your craft of delivery. Even today, when I am working on an email or webpage message, I think of speaking the text to the audience I am targeting. Would they find it interesting or get up and leave? Would they become bored or look un-interested? Simply putting yourself in that mindset can help you create messaging that will resonate with the audience.

From my love of public speaking and presenting various messages to audiences all over, it brought me to marketing, and thus, Tarleton Consulting. I help businesses take the complex and make it simple, make it understandable so their audience understands what it does and sees the value. Tarleton Consulting is about message delivery, in whatever format, at its core. Don’t you want your audience at the edge of their seating wanting to learn more? I sure do, so let’s work on it together. Let us find that perfect message and that perfect delivery to take the complex and make it simple.

Reach out to Tarleton Consulting today and let’s give your ideas direction.